Edvard
Grieg -- Exponent of creative piano chords
"I am not an exponent of
'Scandinavian Music' but only of Norwegian. The national characteristics of
the three peoples - the Norwegians, the Swedes and the Danes - are wholly
different, and their music differs as much." Edvard Grieg
Grieg's strong national tendencies,
despite his conventional German training, places him at once in a class with
Dvorak, Rimky-Karsakov and others who have attempted to preserve the beautiful
spirit embedded in the folk music of the lands of their birth. "The Land
of the Midnight Sun" presents many of the most strongly pronounced
national characteristics to be found in any part of Europe. The location and
topography of the country has much to do with this. In the same latitude as
Greenland and spared the same icy fate by the Gulf Stream, Norway reaches from
a temperate climate right up into the frozen north. Its west coast is a huge
series of natural parapets broken by fjords sometimes a hundred miles in
length and thousands of feet in depth. It is not surprising that a land so
situated should hold its people together in wonderfully strong natural bonds.
Although Grieg was born when Norway was a part of Sweden he always made a
strong distinction between the two countries.
Norway became part of Sweden in 1814,
and it was not until the bloodless revolution of 1905 that Norway regained her
national integrity. Grieg himself was one of the leaders in the great
intellectual and educational awakening of the country. Bjornssen, Ibsen,
Svendsen, Ole Olsen, Halvorson and others all felt the spirit of re-birth
which was stimulating their native land, and these men were majestic enough to
realize that the true sovereignty of the Norway of the future must depend upon
the perpetuation of the wonderful spirit of the Norwegians of the past. Thus
Ibsen in his plays aimed to preserve the Norwegian spirit but not without
criticising the Norwegian of the present day, when it is evident that he was
forsaking the ideals of the homeland. This ibsen did in a marvelous manner in
his romantic play Peer Gynt, to which Grieg has set such beautiful
music. It was not surprising that Grieg was influenced by the great
intellectual activity about him. Fortunately he realized at a very early age
this his greatness depended upon his loyalty to the spirit of his native land.
Otherwise he might have been a repetition of Gade, music, able, and
academically proficient, but writing in a tongue other than his own.
Grieg's
Ancestry
In 1745-1746, the Pretender, Charles
Edward Stuart, attempted to re-establish himself in Scotland.
Overwhelmed by numbers and superior arms
the Highlanders succumbed to the English soldiers at the battle of Culloden.
Those who were taken prisoners were either hung or transported. Alexander
Grieg, a merchant of Aberdeen, was one of those driven out. He found a haven
in Bergen, Norway, where he determined to settle. In order to facilitate
pronunciation he changed his name from Greig to Grieg. His grandson Alexander
Grieg married Gesine Judith Hagerup, and their son was none other than Edvard
Grieg, the greatest master of music Norway has produced. His father, a highly
cultured and sympathetic man, was not especially musical. His mother, however,
was a musician of decided ability not only as a pianoforte soloist but as a
composer of attractive folk songs constructed of colorful broken piano chords,
some of which are said to retain their popularity still in Norway.
Grieg's Birthplace
Grieg was born at Bergen, June 15, 1843.
The city of his birth apart from its inspiring natural location is one of the
great intellectual centers of Europe.
It has been said that a finer spirit of
culture and pure democracy exists in Bergen than in any other old world city.
Grieg's Early Training
Naturally Grieg's first instruction came
from his mother. His lessons started at the age of six. Possibly more
important even than the regular piano lessons was the fact that he had the
advantage of hearing his mother play continuously. There were weekly musicals
in the home, and everything possible was done to encourage the talent of the
child which even at that time was manifest. The mother was by no means a
lenient teacher. She insisted that he learn chords -- specifically, piano
chords. Energetic and clear-headed she insisted upon having her boy practice
things that were unpleasant to him as well as those which were pleasant.
At the age of twelve or thirteen he
commenced to compose, much to the disgust of his teachers who regarded such
youthful "indiscretions" as rubbish. Grieg had a distaste for
everything that savored of the didactic or academic. Accordingly his school
days were made very miserable to him by his materialistic teachers.
His first ambition, however, was to be a
preacher, and he loved to declaim imaginary sermons to members of his family.
At the age of fifteen Grieg met that remarkable Norwegian musician and
patriot, Ole Bull, who immediately took a great interest in the boy. It was
through his influence that Grieg's parents were induced to send their talented
son to the Leipsig Conservatory. At the age of fifteen Grieg met that
remarkable Norwegian musician and patriot, Ole Bull, who immediately took a
great interest in the boy. It was through his influence that Grieg's parents
were induced to send their talented son to the Leipzig Conservatory.
The Influence of Leipzig
The change from the gloriously romantic
surroundings of Bergen to the prosaic environment of Germany's great
commercial center, Leipzig, must have had a peculiar effect upon a youth as
sensitive as Grieg. Although the city still retained some of its medieval
aspects at that time (1858), it was vastly different from the Bergen of the
same period. Moscheles, Richter, Hauptmann, Wenzel, Reinecke and Plaidy were
Grieg's teachers at Leipzig. Grieg worked very industriously. Indeed he
suffered a breakdown in 1860, due to working night and day for months at a
time. The policy of the conservatory at that time was repression rather than
progress.
Plaidy,
Richter and even Moscheles were men who sought to put their pupils ahead by
holding them back through interminable technical contrivances. Grieg entered
heartily into all the work that he did, but in after years he berated some of
the Leipzig teachers very severely for not appreciating his natural talent and
developing it along more rational lines. A little later Grieg met Gade whom he
admired greatly. Gade had forsaken his national idols with the view of
procuring an international audience. In other words, he preferred to be more
universal in his appeal. Fortunately, through the friendship of staunch
Norwegians, Grieg was shown the path which later led him to such vast renown.
By this, however, the reader should not infer that Grieg could not write in a
manner which appeals to the so-called "universal audience." Indeed
there are numerous compositions of Grieg which show but very slight trace of
the Norwegian.
Northern Lights
It was to Ole Bull and Rikard Nordraak
that Grieg owed his reclamation from the conventional to the highly flavored
folk music of Norway. With Ole Bull he traveled over mountain after mountain
becoming better and better acquainted with the music of his homeland. Nordraak,
although he died before he became twenty-four, and although the greater part
of his fame rests upon his association with Grieg, was a remarkable force as a
patriot and as a musician. Side by side they worked to foster Norwegian music,
and it was to such spirits as Nordraak that Grieg repaired when he received
communications from Gade advising his (Grieg) to make his next work less
Norwegian.
Grieg's
Road to Success
In 1867, Grieg married Nina Hagerup, a
most felicitous union. Mme. Grieg, although a cousin to her husband, was a
Dane. She possessed such splendid talent as a singer that her husband was
immensely helped by her loving assistance. Their only child, a daughter, died
at the age of thirteen months. The Griegs lived in Christiana for eight years
where Edvard was the conductor of the thriving Philharmonic Society, and where
they met another remarkable Norwegian couple, the Bjornsons. By this time
Grieg had produced some of his most significant works, including the
remarkable Violin Sonata, Opus 8, and the Piano Sonata, Opus 7. Liszt took a
great interest in the Opus 8, and wrote the twenty-five-year-old composer a
letter so eulogistic that the Norwegian government granted Grieg a sufficient
sum of money to enable him to visit Rome again.
When Grieg reached Rome he naturally
sought out Liszt at once. The old master greeted the young composer with his
usual warmth and cordiality. Grieg has some manuscript compositions with him
and played them, much to the delight of the great pianist. It is interesting
to note that the piano upon which this historical performance was given was of
American make. Piano chords sounded wonderfully full on this instrument.For a
time they played the Norwegian composer's violin Sonata, Liszt playing the
solo part upon the upper octaves of the piano with what Grieg described as
"an expression so beautiful, so marvelously true and singing that it made
me smile inwardly." Then Liszt played for Grieg part of his symphonic
poem, Tasso: Lamento e Trionfo. After this Liszt played a violin
sonata of Grieg from manuscript at sight, playing both the violin and the
piano parts as though it were one composition, and even broadening out the
work here and there according to his own ideas.
A Famous Compositon
Ibsen, the greatest dramatic genius
since Shakespeare, invited Grieg to write music for his wonderful idealistic
portrait of an imaginary Norwegian character, Peer Gynt. The drama was
first produced in February, 1876, and was a pronounced success. The only
American performances of not were those given by the late Richard Mansfield,
to whom great credit must be given for accomplishing a most intricate and
praiseworthy artistic undertaking. The Grieg music, however, has become among
the most popular of the world's musical classics.
Grieg's Later Years
In 1877 Grieg returned to his native
land and built a small study-house on one of the gorgeously beautiful fjords
near the Hardanger Fjord. There, in a little one-room study, Grieg wrote many
of his most beautiful things. This little house soon became the Mecca for so
many visitors that in 1855 he abandoned the plan and built the villa
Troldhaugen (hill of the sprites), which remained his home until his death.
This was located a few miles from Bergen. Grieg made frequent visits to the
continent for the purpose of introducing his compositions. Everywhere he was
received with great favor. In 1888, he played his pianoforte concerto in
London with the Philharmonic Orchestra, and thereafter made additional trips
to England where both he and his wife became very popular. In 1894, Cambridge
University gave him the honorary degree of Doctor of Music. Grieg was often
invited to come to America by managers who had not been slow to observe the
enormous success of his European appearances. Shortly before death, one
American manager sent him a pressing invitation to make a tour of this
country. Grieg replied that owing to his very frail health he had always
avoided the trip, but suggested that if he could be guaranteed thirty concerts
at two thousand five hundred a concert he would make the attempt. Of course
this amount was prohibitive. From this it would appear that Grieg was a good
business man. In a sense, he was, be he estimated that the total earnings of
all his compositions received by him during his entire lifetime was not equal
to the royalties upon the Merry Widow during the performance of that
opera in the city of Christiana alone.
In his later years Grieg was a continual
sufferer from asthma. In August 1907, the effects of the disease became more
and more noticeable. He was obliged to go to a hospital. He realized that the
end was near and died during the night of September 3rd. An autopsy revealed
that his sufferings for years had been excruciating. He was so deeply loved by
the Norwegian people that his death fairly staggered the nation. The funeral
was conducted by the Norwegian government, and took place in part in the
leading art museum of Bergen. Fifty thousand people were in the vast throng
which sought to attend the funeral. Floral tributes came from all over Europe,
including a wreath sent by the German Kaiser. Grieg's remains were cremated
and buried in the side of a precipice near Troldhaugen.
Grieg's Personality and Appearance
Grieg's appearance was very striking
despite the fact that he was not tall. He wore his hair long. It was straight
and very nearly white at an early age. His eyes were blue and very
intelligent. The fact that he had asthma gave him a tendency to stoop. Grieg
had a charming personality, genial, keenly intelligent, simple and
enthusiastic. He naturally had many friends. He was extremely modest. He
talked much of piano chords and their character.Tchaikavski described his
glance as that of one recalling a charming and candid child.
Grieg as a Performer
Frank Van der Stucken gave Mr. Henry T
Finck the following account of Grieg's art as a performer. "As a
performer, Grieg is the most original I ever heard. Though his technic
suffered somewhat from the fact that a heavy wagon crushed one of his hands,
and that he lost the use of one of his lungs in his younger days, he has a way
of performing his compositions that is simply unique. While it lacks the
breadth that a professional virtuoso infuses in his work, he offsets this by
the most poetic conception of piano chords & lyric parts and a wonderfully
crisp and buoyant execution of the rhythmical passages."
Grieg's Public Work
Grieg's naturally delicate constitution
and nervous temperament prevented him from doing as much concert work as he
would have done had he been a robust man. Dr. Edward Hanslick, the noted
Vienese critic, said of his performances, "His piano playing is
enchantingly tender and elegant, and at the same time entirely individual. He
plays like a great composer who is thoroughly at home at the piano, neither
being its tyrant nor its slave - not like a traveling virtuoso who also
devotes some attention to composing. His technic is at the same time flawless,
well groomed and smooth. Grieg need not fear to enter the lists against many a
virtuoso; but he contents himself with the finished execution of lyrical
pieces and dispenses with capering battle horses."
Those who heard Grieg play such pieces
as his Butterflies and To Spring have said that he seemed to
create an atmosphere about them that was like the humming of bees or the
gentle wafting of zephyrs. Once the piece was started, it seemed to rise in
the atmosphere like a bird, and soar gently but surely, never alighting until
the end. When he played in London crowds gathered around the doors as early as
eleven o'clock in the morning and waited until their opening in the evening.
There was only one Grieg and they were not going to miss hearing him.
What Tchaikovsky Thought of Grieg
The great Russian master was one of the
most enthusiastic admirers of Grieg. He delighted to read his music and felt
that each piece contained some new and characteristic message. He said,
"Hearing the pieces of Grieg we instinctively recognize that it was
written by a man impelled by an irresistible impulse to give vent by means of
sounds to a poetical emotion, which obeys no theory or principle, is stamped
with no impress but that of vigorous and sincere artistic feeling. Perfection
of form, strict and irreproachable logic in the development of his themes are
not perseveringly sought after by the Norwegian master. But what grace, what
inimitable and rich musical imagery. What warmth and passion in his melodic
passages, what teeming vitality in his harmony, what originality and beauty in
the turn of his piquant and inglorious modulations and rhythms, and in all the
rest what interest, novelty and independence! If we add to all this that
rarest of qualities, a perfect simplicity far removed from all affectation and
pretence to obscurity and far-fetched novelty, etc., etc."
"I trust that it will not appear
like self-glorification that my dithyramb in praise of Grieg precedes the
statement that our natures are closely allied. Speaking of Grieg's high
qualities, I do not at all wish to convey the idea that I am endowed with an
equal share of them. I leave it to others to decide how far I am lacking in
all that Grieg possesses in such abundance, but I cannot help stating the fact
that he exercises, and has exercised, some measure of that attractive force
which always drew me toward the gifted Norwegian."
Books About Grieg
The books about Grieg are comparatively
few, although there are numerous magazine articles and contributions to
collective biographical works. Daniel Gregory Mason's From Grieg to Brahms,
and E. Markham Lee's Grieg were the best works upon the composer until
the appearance of the incomparable biography of Mr. H T Finck, the well-known
American critic who knew Grieg well, and who corresponded with him frequently
during the preparation of Grieg and His Music. This is one of the most
interesting and instructive works of its kind, and has been used as the basis
for much of the present monograph.
Grieg's Compositions
Grieg had the delightful faculty of
expressing his thoughts with harmonies refreshingly new and often exceedingly
original. Many of his themes have been traced indisputably to Norwegian fold
music sources, but it remained for Grieg to supply the harmonic background
through which these compositions might be presented to the world in all their
delicious verity of Norse flavor. He expanded the resources of harmonic usage
far more than those of his own time realized. Twenty-six of Grieg's opus
numbers are for piano solo. Many of these opus numbers include collections of
numerous short piano pieces. His best known orchestral works Before the
Cloister Gate, Landsighting, and Olaf Trygvason are perhaps
the most popular. Of Grieg's one hundred and twenty-five songs only a very few
have become popularly known. Of these Ich Leibe Dich, The Swan Song
and Solveig's Lied are the most liked. It may be noticed that here is a
composer who has written no symphonies nor any operas yet one who ranks with
the foremost masters. Illness prevented him from becoming a dramatic composer.
The Etude
Magazine June 1911